After plans stalled for a new dam in the Czech Republic, eight beavers saved the day seemingly overnight. “At this point, nothing that beavers do surprises me.”

Beavers have saved Czech taxpayers a cool $1 million by flooding a protected former army training site where a long-stalled dam was planned, a conservation official said on Tuesday. Among nature's great engineers,

The unsuspecting rodents' achievement has gained global media attention, earning praise from conservation groups.

Beavers have saved the Czech government and its citizens $1.2 million, by flooding an area, where a dam was planned.

Moving slowly through the red tape of bureaucracy sometimes pays off, as in the Czech Republic, where officials planned to build a $1.2 million dam to help protect the river habitat of critically endangered crayfish.

Despite a seven-year planning process and successfully securing the funding, the Czech Republic’s plans to build a new dam in the Brdy region came to a standstill as authorities struggled to acquire building permits. However, it was the arrival of eight hard-working beavers that finally got the job done.

The beavers chose to build their dam in a drainage canal created by the military on a former training ground in the Brdy region. This area had been causing headaches for local environmentalists due to its artificial drainage system,

Ecologists inspecting the dams said they will last a long time and do the jobs of draining the area and offering good conditions for wildlife.

What happens when an infrastructure project is stalled for more than seven years? In most countries, the project may have been shelved but the beavers in the Brdy region of the Czech Republic had different ideas -- one which has helped the authorities save over Rs 10 crore in expense.

Nature saves the budget, an example comes from the Czech Republic. A family of beavers managed to rehabilitate a military site in the Czech Republic for free, thus saving over 1.19 million euros from the public budget.